Amid the emergency COVID-19 response, the world cannot afford to ignore people’s broader health needs. PHC has a critical role to play in ensuring continued access to routine and essential services.
While the morbidity and mortality directly attributed to COVID-19 is likely to be high in many countries, evidence from past disasters and outbreaks shows that indirect mortality from other preventable and treatable diseases can be staggering when access to care is reduced. Recent modeling suggests that excess mortality due to disruptions in routine and essential services caused by COVID-19 may be orders of magnitude higher than deaths directly attributable to COVID-19 in many LMICs.
Maintaining continuity of service delivery for routine and essential care is necessary for minimizing excess morbidity and mortality and maintaining population trust in the health system. As a patient’s first point of contact for care and as a cornerstone of a sustainable health system, PHC has a critical role to play in maintaining continuity of routine and essential services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we highlight three strategies—drawing from PHCPI’s Improvement Strategies—and promising country examples for how PHC systems can be leveraged in these efforts.
